NASA asteroid alert! 134-foot rock sped past Earth today at whopping at 4km per sec

NASA says another asteroid just flew past Earth today. Check mind-boggling stats of this massive 134-foot asteroid.

By: HT TECH
| Updated on: Sep 26 2022, 12:20 IST

Share Via

NASA DART Mission in pics: Amazing Attack on Asteroid!

4/6 Where to watch: The historic collision can be watched live online as NASA will be broadcasting the same. NASA will broadcast the live coverage of DART’s impact with the asteroid Dimorphos on NASA TV and its several social media handles like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. (AFP)

DART spacecraft — 5/6 About asteroids: According to NASA, More than 100 tons of dust and sand sized particles are bombarded towards Earth everyday. While, about once a year, an automobile-sized asteroid hits Earth's atmosphere, creates an impressive fireball, and burns up before reaching the surface. Every 2,000 years or so, a meteoroid the size of a football field hits Earth and causes significant damage to the area. Only once every few million years, an object large enough to threaten Earth's civilization comes along. Impact craters on Earth, the moon and other planetary bodies are evidence of these occurrences. (AP)

Atseorid — 6/6 Space rocks smaller than about 25 meters (about 82 feet) will most likely burn up as they enter the Earth's atmosphere and cause little or no damage. By comparison, asteroids that populate the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and pose no threat to Earth, can be as big as 940 kilometers (about 583 miles) across. (MINT_PRINT)

NASA, with the help of its various space and ground-based telescopes, found a 134-foot asteroid heading dangerously towards Earth. The asteroid passed very close to Earth today. This particular asteroid has sparked worry and concern among space agencies as it was discovered just a week ago on September 21, 2022. The stats of this asteroid are stupefying! Not only is it big, it was spotted hurtling towards the planet at blistering speed. The asteroid was classified as a potentially hazardous asteroid due to the close proximity of its encounter with Earth.

Details about Asteroid 2022 SE6

Asteroid 2022 SE6 is different from other asteroids as it does not belong to the Apollo group of asteroids but the Aten group. The asteroid takes just 303 days to complete one orbit around the Sun, according to the-sky.org. Its maximum distance from the Sun during this orbit is 152 million kilometers and minimum distance is 112 million kilometers.

Asteroid 2022 SE6 was observed hurtling towards Earth today at a blistering speed of 4 km per second, according to NASA. The asteroid made its closest approach to the planet at a distance of 1.5 million kilometers during today's early hours. Although this asteroid was not expected to impact Earth, things could have changed if a slight deviation in its path occurred due to interaction with the Earth's gravitational field. It could have changed the asteroid's trajectory and sent it hurtling towards the Earth for surface impact.

How is an Asteroid Orbit Calculated?

An asteroid's orbit is computed by finding the elliptical path about the sun that best fits the available observations of the object using various space and ground-based telescopes such as NASA's NEOWISE telescope and its brand-new Sentry II algorithm. That is, the object's computed path about the sun is adjusted until the predictions of where the asteroid should have appeared in the sky at several observed times match the positions where the object was actually observed to be at those same time.

Follow HT Tech for the latest tech news and reviews , also keep up with us on Twitter, Facebook, Google News, and Instagram. For our latest videos, subscribe to our YouTube channel.

First Published Date: 26 Sep, 12:19 IST